6 weeks

We have had a very busy few days as my sister got married on Saturday. Amelia went to her first wedding and wore a gorgeous little outfit. Her sense of occasion was bang on and she slept through the whole thing, only waking up for feeds and then going back to sleep in whoever's arms. She was very popular and I managed to resist the urge to sanitise everyone's hands before they held her. 

DH has returned from, hopefully, his last business trip to Europe. Now he has a week to get the place ready for us to come home to.
So we leave Nelson on Friday to go to Auckland, stay a night there and catch our flight to Japan the next day early. DH will be waiting for us at the airport and then we have a bit of a long drive home to Iwaki. About 3 hours. Am very sad to be leaving my mum behind and I know she is sad we are going. On the bright side, she can get her nice big comfy bed back. :)

So here is Amelia in her little wedding outfit.

5 Weeks

Amelia is 5 weeks old today! She has been much more settled the last two days. Not sure what it is exactly but I am just going to keep doing what I'm doing! She seems to know who people are and what's going on around our house now. Last night when I put her on the table to get ready for her bath, she looked at me with complete understanding as to what was coming next. No, really she did! She loves her bath, can't wait till she is a bit bigger and we can have one together.

Last night at 1am I put her in bed after a feed and she went straight off to sleep, no rocking, shushing, patting, gently laying her in bed and having her eyes fly open again or anything! I was stunned for a few minutes and quickly hopped back in bed and hoped she stayed asleep, which she did. I, on the other hand, couldn't get back to sleep - the first time that has happened too, since she was born.

Amelia now has her very own NZ passport, so we are all set to be able to leave at the end of the month back to Japan. I hear it's really really hot over there...it's been really cold here in NZ so the change in temperatures is going to be rough on me, I hope Amelia adjusts better than I do. 

There must be an app for that

Amelia and I have been having our moments, recently more so than before. I guess her true personality is coming out and the usual problems that newborns have like colic etc have started for us. Last night when I took her off my boob to wind her she screamed with such indignation at not being able to finish at her own pace, or that's my interpretation anyway.

In the interest of being honest and not outright lying and saying everything is fabulous, yesterday was pretty crap really. I managed a shower at 3pm and Amelia would only go to sleep finally when I climbed into my bed with her out of desperation and we both lay down and slept. 

So today my mum and I were discussing getting some kind of white noise cd or something for her as it really is too quiet round here for her to stay asleep during the day. Then I had a 2011 thought - there must be an app for that. Sure enough, in about 2 minutes I had found and downloaded a white noise app that plays wave sounds and even switches itself off after however long you want. So I just poped the ipad at the end of her bed and she went off to sleep and didn't wake up after 20 minutes! So I quickly went out for a walk with the dog - the first time I had left the house in 2 days. We were only gone 20-30 minutes tops but when I got back Amelia was awake. So my initial elation was dashed. Turns out she had some wind which was probably what woke her up. So now she is having her second go at a nap for the afternoon and has been asleep for a while now with the help of the waves. Could this little piece of technology help save my sanity? I hope so!

It's called "ipacifier" and it's free!

1 month old!

Yesterday was the 4th Friday since Amelia was born! So that kind of means she is a month old though the 10th of July is actually tomorrow. On Tuesday she got weighed and was finally back to 3260 which was her birth weight exactly. Whew. We also found her "Mongolian Blue Spot". Most Japanese babies are born with a kind of birth mark that looks a bit like bruise, usually somewhere on their lower back or buttocks. We didn't see one when Amelia was born until the other day when I noticed a kind of dark patch on her upper back and shoulder. It is quite light, so that is why we probably missed it.

She has started to "chat" a little when she is in a good mood and also screams really really loudly now when she has a windy tummy. Yesterday I was in tears at one stage too as it seemed like she was terribly uncomfortable. I've never seen her that bad before. We are working on strategies to decrease her wind, but as all you mums out there will know, it takes time. 

Yesterday we went to her Newborn Hearing Screening. Due to a case of mild hearing loss from birth in our family, Amelia got the special test where they hook up some electrodes to the babies head and shoulder or somewhere and put some doctor Spock ear muffs on to test. She passed with flying colours first time round in about 20 seconds. Sometimes they don't get a definitive test and have to repeat it or ask you to come back another time or something. So lucky for Amelia, she doesn't have her mummy's hearing but rather her daddy's. I'm a bit deaf and yesterday the hearing test lady was talking to me in a very quiet voice and I had my back turned and I had no idea she had been talking to me. The test lady was rather shocked that I hadn't heard her but when she asked about hearing problems in our family before our appointment, she said she was only interested in the instances from birth - which I am not, so I didn't tell her I have crap hearing.

DH on the other hand can hear my cell phone ringing 2 blocks away and is very picky about his music. However he has terrible eyesight, unlike mine which is fantastic, so here's also hoping Amelia get's my eyes!!

Getting some chubby cheeks finally! :)

3 Weeks

Amelia and I have survived the first 3 weeks! I feel a lot more able as a mummy than I did 3 weeks ago! I can actually put the nappy on the right way round now...not something I managed the first time, much to the midwife's amusment!

Today we had our first really big outing to a shopping mall. Amelia went in her Moby Wrap and slept most of the time and was very popular with the shop assistants everywhere we went and even random customers asked me about her and cooed over her. Proud mummy moment.

DH has gone back to Japan now. I was so upset about him leaving and cried all day. But once he had actually gone, I got over it and now we are getting on with things. I am surviving night duty alone although I can call on Nana when things get rough. It helps a lot that Amelia wakes up feeds and pretty much goes straight back to sleep for several hours. We talk to DH on skype every day so Amelia can hear her daddy's voice. In the mean time I hope he is enjoying his uninterrupted sleep and playing golf on the weekends, cause that isn't going to last much longer!
We are hoping to go back to Japan at the end of July. I am looking forward to getting on with my life a little more and for us 3 to be a real family, together, in our own home .